Notes and Queries, No. 209, October 29 1853 (Paperback)

Excerpt: ...may attribute it to other and truer causes. The rose, the thistle, the shamrock, the leek, the lion, the unicorn, the harp, &c. are familiar examples of national emblems. The ivy, the holly, and the mistletoe are joined up with the Christmas worship, though probably of Druidical origin. The Assyrian sculptures present, under the "Joronher," or effulgence, a sacred tree, which may assimilate with the toolsu and the peepul tree, held in almost equal veneration by the Hindoos. The winged lions and bulls with the heads of men, the angels and cherubim, recall to mind passages of scriptural and pagan history. The sciences of astronomy and mathematics have afforded myths or symbols in the circle, the crescent, the bident, the trident, the cross, &c. The translators of the cuneiform inscriptions represent crucifixion as the common punishment for rebellion and treason. The Jews may have imitated the Assyrians, as crucifixion may have been adopted long before that of Christ and the two thieves (Qy. robbers). The Mahomedans, who have copied the Jews in many practices and customs, executed gang robbers or daccorts by suspending the criminals from a tree, their heads and arms being tied to the branches, and then ripping up the abdomen. I myself saw in Oude an instance of several bodies. It may be inferred, then, that the position of the culprits under execution was designated by crucifixion. The Hindoos mildly say that when their system of government existed in efficiency there was neither crime nor punishment. To the examples mentioned by your correspondent, I admit that the form of the cross, as now received, may be derived from that of Christ, discovered on Mount Calvary in 236 A.D. Constantine, in 306 A.D., adopted it as a standard in Labarum. Other nations have attached staves to eagles, dragons, fish, &c. as standards and therefore, construing "Crux ansata" literally, the ensign of Constantine might be formed by attaching a staff to the...